Wednesday, January 30, 2013

We shared a couple of images already of the "Old
Man" which is a saguaro on its way to checking out. A "typical" saguaro can take up to
75-years before it develops a side arm and for those who are wondering, a saguaro
without arms is called a spear.People
who know saguaros say that they can live to be as old as 150-years.

Near San Manuuel, Arizona

1DsIII 70mm f/11 1/125 ISO 100

﻿

We decided to take the effort and photograph as many
saguaros as we can this year with plans to do such at least once per month
travel schedule permitting.

An old grove near San Manuel Arizona

DF/IQ160 Maniya 120mm f/4 1/100 ISO 50

Near San Manuel, Arizona

DF/IQ160 Mamiya 120mm f/8 1/100 ISO50

The saguaro is as much a part of the southwest as old black
& white cowboy movies.We are fortunate
to live in the Tucson
area where we have a large concentration of saguaros.There's actually a national park for saguaros
in 2-places in Tucson,
Saguaro National Park East and West with the western portion within an hours
drive of us.

Near San Manuel, Arizona

DF/IQ160 Mamiya 120mm f/4 1/100 ISO 50

We found this scene as we were driving back onto hard
pavement near San Manuel close to sunset.This image has been printed and will very shortly be offered for sale in
our web gallery.

"Saguaro Forest"

18x36 printed on canvas

DF/IQ160 Mamiya 120mm f/4 1/60 ISO 50

We live approximately 30-minutes north of Tucson near the small communities of Catalina
and Oracle and enjoy see saguaros in the
area.A little further north of us is an
old mining town called San Manuel which Don likes to say has land that should
be called Saguaro National Park West however no one has asked him and we get to
keep the area to ourselves.

Saguaro National Park - West

1DsIII 24mm f/6.3 1/125 ISO 100

﻿

Typical vegetation we need to go through to capture an
image.

Thorns

1DsIII 70mm f/8 1/125 ISO 100

While this may look like a fish net or hair net it's really
a decaying saguaro.

"Net"

1DsIII 70mm f/8 1/125 ISO 100

"Frame work"

1DsIII 70mm f/8 1/125 ISO 100

"Inside a decaying saguaro"

DF/IQ160 Mamiya 120mm f/8 1/80 ISO 200

Image processing:

First we need to speak about the equipment used.Sandy
used her Canon 1DsIII and the newer Canon EF24-70 lens.She just replaced her lens with the newer
"improved" lens and so far everything looks good, except.Except we're noticing a little bit of vignetting
when set at 24mm and the lens hood is attached.We'll be watching that in the coming days.

Saguaro National Park West

1DsIII 70mm f/11 1/125 ISO 100

Don used his Phase One DF attached to the Phase One IQ160
digital back and a combination of a 55mm leaf shutter and Mamiya 120 macro
(manual focus) lenses.While there's no
surprises with the 55mm the 120 has turned out to be a great landscape lens as
well as one for macro work.

Saguaro National Park West

DF/IQ160 Mamiya 120mm f/5.6 1/160 ISO 200

The images shown here where all processed first using
Capture One 7.02 before opening in Photoshop CS6 where further processing was
done before saving to jpeg.

Saguaro National Park West

1DsIII 47mm f/6.3 1/125 ISO 100

And finally, a close up of a live, very healthy saguaro.

DF/IQ160 120mm f/5.6 1/80 ISO 100

And a note on shooting conditions.The images posted were taken over a span of
2-separate days.We experienced heavy
overcast, chilly days with periods of heavy rain and light drizzle.Both camera system worked flawlessly.

One of the things we enjoy is seeing who spots the first
saguaro on our way home from a trip.

As always thank you for allowing us to share with you and
remember your thoughts, comments and suggestions are always welcome.

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